Smooth Criminal

Is this going to be in the paper tomorrow? Hopefully. I was a bit late getting these images in, but whatever. At a dance recital that honored the late MJ, I felt as if this guy really had his style and moves down pretty good. I was impressed.

Dont Fuck With...

The Night Brigade @ at the Kitchen on June 23rd, 2009.


Chaos. Good goddamn times. Mikey's blog describes it better then I could.

These tracks of time

Illinois Motorcycle Freedom Run 2009 Starting point.
Grundy County Fairgrounds, Morris.


I don't have much to say. Today is fathers day. I went fishing with my brother and my dad earlier. It was my first time and thus I didn't catch anything except weeds. Still good times though, at least it was until it started to rain. I don't know what is up with this weather lately. It has been raining far too much. Everytime I plan on shooting some event in Channananahon or Minooka it starts pouring. Whatever. I feel like taking a nap, it just seems like a solid thing to do.

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Come on, Come Together.

Jesus rides beside me, he never buys any smokes

I can't hardly wait.

Bridges, Squares

That Biz Markie song from the Heineken commercial. You all know the one. The drunk folks are all getting a ride home with some stranger, and the entire crowd is yelling "Yoooou, You got what I need but you say he's just a friend. You say he's just a friend, ooooohhhh baby...". Yeah, that song got played last night at Corey's house party. Everyone present (including myself, of course) was yelling along to that chorus. Even after the song finished, everyone one kept it going. It was both amazing and absurd. That about sums up last night for me.

I left early to wake up early to do a photo shoot for some friends. During that party the night before, I set my alarm, which in retrospect was a bad idea. I apparently set my alarm to PM instead of AM. So I awoke in the morning to a phone call from Johnny telling me that they were outside of my house ready to pick me up. Ugh, what a rough way to start the day. But the day ended well since we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. I haven't been there in what seems to an eternity, and good times were had. I am not much of a drug user... and by that I mean I seriously don't dick around with anything, but I wish I was on acid or something, as everything at that place is just meant to blow your mind, and it did. But I feel as if all of that crazy shit would be easier to take while under the influence.

Tonight, Corey had more people over for Dude Fest '09 day two. I enjoyed myself. Played some pool. We real cool. We Jazz June. We die soon. Poetry reference there... anyone? No? Ok. Never mind then.

The Chanooka Weekly called me the other day. I answered my cell phone to a call that went like this: (note: since I just woke up and the phone connection was shitty, this was all that I heard, the ' ...... ' signifies moments where I couldn't understand, but I didn't ask to be repeated ) "Hi Ryan, this is R.... with the .......... weekly, the photographer position is still open, if you'd want it". Me: " Oh yeah, great, um yeah, of course I want it". I thought it was my great break into getting a staff job at one of papers I have applied for, but sadly was not the case, as I soon realized. Randy: "Ok, great, well we need someone to shoot the events that take place in the Minooka and Channahon area. So since I am no where near the area, just shoot whatever is going on, and we will pay you ........ per image printed". I still don't know what number he said there, but I think he might of said 5 dollars... (!), which I hope is not what he said. That would just be outrageous. But Yeah, once I wake up tomorrow I am going to shoot something for them. Even if I am seriously not going to be paid anything for them, I will atleast have no reason to be so lazy.

Throughout the day today, as I drove in my car, I only listened to the song "Good Weekend" by the band Art Brut. Sometime soon I hope to be singing a few lines from that song and seriously mean them. Perhaps we will see?


My blog posts are always so random, but whatever. Deal with it. No picture now, but perhaps one later?

Pranks / Dancing in the Dark / Crossing the Redline

Bob's amazing shoe Collection.


Had a pretty good weekend. I was involved in a prank war on Friday. Corey and I were watching the Redwings lose game 7 at Heroes as SOME clowns decided it'd be funny to write shit about the band New Found Glory on Corey's car. We got those pranksters back not to soon afterwards, via a 12 pack of eggs. I feel younger then I am, and these actions were no exception. I thought that was the end of it, but alas we ended up at Nick's later. The clowns TPed(is that the correct spelling?) his yard, and they also left a wendy's job application for Denis. Pretty funny stuff. Bing? I don't have a saying, people.

Saturday, I had some amazing soup. I was 'pranked' because they left me with the soup bill. Whatever... I can deal with it. Took some shots at a drenched street hockey rink, skated with the eagle... then went to a graduation party. i had a brilliant time. I cannot dance. I tell people this. But for whatever reason, I found myself dancing to some pretty outrageous tunes. I saw some people I haven't seen in a while, and met others for the first time. The party started terribly as Corey's ass decided it'd be cool if he just kind of spit up his shot onto the ground, and my shorts. There is something about that man and shots, I remember he was drunk several months ago taking shots. Except he wasn't 'taking' shots as much as he was just sipping on them. What a guy.

Sunday. I woke up and played some hockey. It was great, except that I had a terrible headache the entire time. It may of been from lack of eating anything, or the sun, or perhaps from drinking from the night before, if not a combination of all three. Street hockey is always fun. Everyone is just there to have a good time, well most people. There was this huge dude there whom I really offended. After my team scored, the dude was upset that I was trying get the 'puck' from him. Apparently after a goal is scored you are supposed to let the other team cross the half before you can go after them. I didn't know this. Infact I thought the man was joking. He was not, he started to raise his voice and stuff. He may of just been pissed because the sweet goals I was scoring (a joke...). I don't know what is up with me upsetting so many people lately. I am confident that I went many years without pissing anyone off, but recently I have been offending everyone on a very consistent pace. Strange. The story ends well though, as after the game I went up to the dude and told him there was no disrespect from me, I seriously didn't know that rule. We shook hands, and all is good. Perhaps its weird, but it bothers me when I know people are upset at me. I always want to do something about it.

Completely unrelated note: Drummer Warren has left Against Me! I am saddened by that fact. It was obvious that he was always having so much fun playing with that band. I love older AM! and I loved Warrens stupid fucking drum beats. I honestly just couldn't get into New Wave. It had one or two songs that I enjoyed, but the rest... blah. Infact, singer-songwriter Ben Lee covered the entire CD and put it up on his website a while ago . I honestly enjoy his version of New Wave better then AM!'s. How sad is that?

Boxcar

Rain or shine, these kids were going all out. Gus Macker was a 3 on 3 basketball tournament that took place on the streets of downtown Morris. I showed up in the morning during a downfall expecting the event to be canceled, but to my surprise was going on. Everyone was slipping and sliding on the wet asphalt, but I still shot some decent stuff.

I still need to work on portraits. Does anyone want their picture taken? Speaking of which, I need to invest in another speedlight. I want to have the ability to take some decent portraits anywhere I go, and having just one speedlight limits what I can do. Although outdated, my D70 and SB 600 speedlight can be operated wirelessly, which is fun and exciting. Having two would double my pleasure.

Sometimes dogs get high too. From the article:

"His eyes were kind of glossed over, very out of touch, I mean, he didn't seem to recognize me at first," Nestor Waddell said. "When he was trying to walk, he was looking at his paw, and then looking at the ground and then trying to get his paw to reach the ground, but was unsuccessful."

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1-2-3-4 who's punk, whats the score?

...

"You need a safe-word. And it shouldn't be more"

Godlovesugly

Hockey makes me tired. My body, mind, and soul all want to sleep yet something is keeping me awake. I am just having the music of Atmosphere provide me with tunes that keep me somewhat focused on this writing. My birthday was quite grand. I received a free #5 from Jimmy Johns, then kind of just chilled at my house until my family came home. We ended up going to the Joliet rootbeer stand. It was pretty shitty out, so we ended up eating in the car, but whatever. Its always good to be with family.

Afterwards I headed over to Sara's house. Some of my pals met me there. We watched Conan's debut (what a birthday present!) then just hungout around a fire. I love my friends. They are good people, I am glad they drove to Rockdale to be with me on my day.

A good friend of mine today was texting (yes, I can text now) me about how he was getting a bit fed up with how people were treating him. I felt like such a dick. I didn't even know what to say. I mean, I don't normally insult the guy, but if others do, I might laugh or even contribute. I mean, as far as I know it was always in good fun, but clearly he does not feel that way. I try to treat everyone one with respect, but I know I must let up when joking around.

So I need to tell some kids to let up a bit, and I need to take my own advice.


This weekend seems like it will be a busy one. I might be going to a concert tomorrow night, and there are two parties I was invited to... don't know if I will go to either. Saturday I am attending an NHRA event with my dad! My brother scored us sweet VIP tickets in one of the private catered rooms. Sunday the eagle is having a cookout. Sarah also mentioned something about getting something to eat this weekend. Hopefully that will happen. A few days ago I told the Herald that I was available all weekend for assignments. So hopefully I can fit all of this shit in.

These blog posts always make me seem like such a busy guy. In reality this is not the case. I mean, sometimes I have stuff going on during the weekends, but I spend weekdays doing a whole lot of nothing. I will work on this.

Thanks for listening.